Nothing cuts through stacks of gift-wrapped Amazon boxes like a holiday present you made with your own hands. If your crafting skills never evolved past popsicle sticks, don’t worry: Denver is home to dozens of workshops where the pros can help you create something truly unique to slip under the tree.

Below, five of our favorite Denver craft workshops.

Fleur

Make the culinary creative in your life a canvas that accentuates their ingenuity at Fleur in the Speer neighborhood. This two-hour workshop ($100) will lead participants through the basics of wood burning—also called pyrography—using a heated pen. A cutting board is provided, and though students can arrive with a design in mind, teachers are always willing to help brainstorm. 

Denver Art Gym

Swap a paintbrush for a penlike tool called a tjanting when Angela Leong, who studied in Singapore and Malaysia, teaches you the ancient art of batik, an Indonesian dying technique that uses wax to create vibrant designs. Like many of the classes at Montclair’s Denver Art Gym—which also offers low-cost studio and gallery space for local creatives—this workshop is on the affordable side, at $65.

Denver Botanic Gardens

Stained glass
Photo courtesy of Meggy Wilm/Colorado Glass Works
  • What you’ll make: Stained glass night lights
  • When: December 13 from 9:30 a.m. to noon or 1 to 3:30 p.m.
  • Where: 1007 York St., Denver (Cheesman Park)

The learning curve for stained glass can be steep, especially when it comes to scoring and cutting shards into the right shape. Skip that step with this beginner-friendly workshop at the Denver Botanic Gardens ($155, or $145 for members), where students will use a soldering iron to piece together one of five precut, whimsical garden designs, such as a snail or butterfly. 

Inks & Drinks

  • What you’ll make: String art
  • When: Open studio (reservations are recommended) from noon to 9 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday
  • Where: 8920 Westminster Blvd., Westminster

These mesmerizing geometric patterns ($25 to $45), made by winding string around nails hammered into a board, are hard to mess up—good news for those who prefer to craft while sipping a cocktail or two from the full bar at Westminster’s Inks & Drinks. Bring your own design or choose from a range of preprinted templates, such as an elephant, monstera leaf, or our state flag (a perfect choice for the homesick Colorado expat on your list).

Perfect Petal

People holding floral arrangements
Photo courtesy of the Perfect Petal

Instead of yet another sweet potato casserole, why not bring a lush display to the Thanksgiving table? During a two-hour tutorial, an instructor at the 30-year-old Perfect Petal in West Highland will teach you how to arrange an autumnal showstopper with seasonal stems. You can also sign up to make a winter wreath or evergreen centerpiece on December 6 or 19, respectively; each class is $150.